Ballet Demonstration

These kids are growing up way too fast!  Bike Days, Ballet Demos, Landon wants to be outside 24-7.  SLOW DOWN!!!

In January, Alayna started with the Steps Of Grace ballet program.  She had been BEGGING to do ballet and this is the program a few of our friends were doing and they said nothing but good things - so we gave it a whirl!  We got the specific pink tutu, the exactly right pink tights and were fitted for the perfect ballet slipper.  Each week we wore those things to class and had her hair in the required bun.  OY!  I'm not sure I was cut out for that!  :)  Many Thursdays held a lot of "interesting" mother/daughter moments.  Didn't seem to matter if she took a nap or didn't take a nap...getting dressed and hair done for ballet included LOTS of sassiness, drama and craziness 90% of the time.  A few weeks ago, her teacher told them there was going to be a ballet demonstration where they got to perform on stage.  Alayna COULD NOT WAIT!  She was so excited!  She'd constantly ask..."how many days til my demonstration?"  A few days before she even asked if she could make phone calls to remind Grandmas and Grandpas they were supposed to come!  :)

She did a GREAT job!  We were very proud of her!  It was SO nice Grandma and Grandpa and Grandma and Papa were able to come see!  Thank you for coming!

Practice on Thursday night.  Alayna in the middle and her friend Taylor on the left.

 Aren't they adorable little ballerinas?

 Performance night - whole class

 Performing!

 So proud!

Not sure if ballet is in her future though.  Now she is BEGGING to try figure skating!  She may hit this ice next fall!  :)

Side story (so I don't forget this):

We had to send in pictures of the girls with their daddy's for a surprise during the demonstration - it was a surprise for the girls and the dads.  I picked one from last summer - at the lake.  Alayna and Brian were fishing.  Anyway - we were had just stepped out of the show b/c we had a sitter for Landon and it was getting late when we heard the song "Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman.  This song is about a Daddy taking time to dance with his daughter at every stage in her life because "soon she'll be gone" (aka - all grown up).  SO - when this song first came out I would think about how Brian and Briana would never get to do this (until Heaven of course) and I would ball.  I've gotten past that for the most part since the song has been out for a while now - BUT - this little situation just brought it all back and made me a little teary (didn't ball - just teary) :)  So that is part one...it set the stage...

We then go to the car and get ready to head to ice cream as a reward for Alayna doing such a great job.  We pull out of the church parking lot and the song "I Can Only Imagine" comes on the radio.  We had this song in Briana's funeral and it always brings back some memories!  Brian and I looked at eachother and I said "do you really think it is a coincidence this song is on right now?"  I then told Alayna and Grant the song was special to us because it was a song that reminded us of Briana.  One of them commented on how it made them a little sad and we told them that was ok...then Grant said "I almost feel like I'm gonna cry".  We just found the whole conversation a little amazing!  

Bike Day

It was Bike Day at school for Grant today!  He decided on his blue dinosaur bike with his new helmet he got for Christmas.  He also has a bigger red bike from his birthday, but he's not as comfortable on that one yet and still uses the training wheels.  It's trickier - being higher and needing more power to get it to go like you want it to. He's a little hesitant to get on it.  ANYWAY...

Today was Bike Day and the last 30-45 minutes of their school day was spent out in the parking lot driving on the "road" their teachers had drawn for them with sidewalk chalk.  It was a great little course with stop signs and everything.  During class today "Officer Carol" came to talk with the kids about bike safety.  They learned bikes need to follow all the same traffic signs and signals cars do, crossing the street safely on a bike and even what hand signals you use when riding a bike and you want to turn, etc.  Sounds like a great and excited day!

Grant is above with his friends Grant and Owen.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!  

Today was a great Mother's Day for me!  I was able to spend it with my 3 favorite kiddos, 2 great Mom's, remembering the first little girl who made me a "mother" to begin with and a husband who has helped me through it all.  Am I blessed or what?!?!

 Briana would be almost 6 1/2 right now

Grant 5 1/2, Alayna 4, Landon 20 mos 

 Alayna LOVES Great Grandma and insisted we get her the "perfect" Mother's Day gift this year.  I'm not sure I succeeded on that end, but it was so cute to see her excitement picking something out at the store.  She carried it up to pay, carried the bag, wrapped it so carefully and made the below little card.  All it said was "Dear Grandma Schmidt"  with "Alayna" on the back side.  I wrote it for her on a separate piece of paper so she could write it on her card herself.  You can see she scribbled it out a few times trying to get it perfect!  One of the biggest reasons Alayna feels a special connection to Great Grandma is because she gave me the white blankie Alayna always uses as a shower gift.  She can't thank Grandma enough for that blanket.    :)  Aren't they adorable?

Zoo

We have not made it to the zoo nearly as much as we have the past 2 summers.  It's sorta sad.  We used to get there AT LEAST once a week and this year I think it was only about once a month.  Baby schedules and kid activities lead us different directions this year I guess.
Today though - we made it!  Landon fell asleep on the way home from a playdate and was completely out!  So we let him sleep til he woke up - about 1:15 or so.  We gave him some lunch and headed to the zoo.  It was awesome weather and great timing - NO ONE was at the zoo.  We practically had the place all to ourselves.

The gorillas (this one in particular) were pretty active.  He would sit and make a sound with his mouth, wait a few seconds and then do some sort of outburst - pound his chest, jump against the fence, etc.  It was fun to watch, but made me pretty happy to have the fence in between us.

 Just about to hit the fence

 Hitting the fence

 Isn't he cute :)

 As we were looking for the turtles in this aquarium, I spotted this "lizard" hanging out.  "Look Grant - see that lizard up there?"  "Mom - that's a Basilisk.  They have webbed feet and can run really fast on top of the water."  And turns out - he was right.  That's exactly what it was.  That must have been a featured animal on Wild Kratts!

 Mommy thought I was pretty photogenic today.  She's trying to get a few good fall shots - usually I don't cooperate - so she thought she better post the good ones - we may not get anymore!

 The the "baby" lions and their momma.  Daddy lion was outside.  The babies turned one this past July I believe and are nearly full grown if I remember reading right.  The front one and the middle left are males, middle right is the momma and back lion is the sister

 This leaf on my arm has to come off!

 Maybe if I bite it...

 Much better!

 Mommy went a little nuts on pics of me today, but usually I don't cooperate.  I'm too busy and always want to go go go!

 Checkin' out the giraffes 

 And a man passing by saw me taking pics of the kids and offered to take one of all of us.  I'm so thankful he did...it actually turned out pretty good!

Fall

Well - it's been FOREVER since I've posted on the blog.  It makes me so SAD that I've let it go this long.  I have all the pictures to fill in the gap, but my brain is not remembering all the details I want to put on the blog for our family memories.  The whole point of this blog is to keep up-to-date info on the lives of our kids and what they are up to at each new stage of their lives.  So much happens in the first year and I've missed documenting half of Landon's.  Hopefully I will get some of it down, but for now - we'll pick up in the present because if I don't do it soon, I'm afraid it will NEVER happen.

We've had some beautiful weather this week and the colors around us are just amazing!  The drive back to our house in our subdivision is just stunning.  I love the orange & reds.  Over the past week or so, I've been trying to get some fun fall shots of the kids.  Leaves, playing outside, fall walks in the woods and on walking paths.  Fun times!

Alayna attacking the leaf pile on Sunday

Grant's turn

"Cannon ball!!!!!!" (literally what he was saying here)

Ugh!  Good landing!